By Lindsay Fiori
Journal Times | Posted: Thursday, August 7, 2008 12:00 am
Brett Favre posters and cheeseheads adorn the walls of Patrick Daley's bar in Manhattan. More Green Bay Packers memorabilia hangs from the ceiling.
Every Sunday during football season, people line up in their green and gold in sometimes-frigid New York weather three hours before the bar opens to get a seat for watching Packers games.
Now that Favre has been traded to the New York Jets, Daley, from Wauwatosa, said he doesn't know what to do with his bar, Kettle of Fish.
"This is a tough situation," said Daley, 53. "I myself have been in Brett's corner, but it's Packers first. I'll be rooting for the Jets when they play anyone else but the Pack.
"When we meet them in the Super Bowl, I'll be rooting against Brett. Oh, that sounds so strange."
Daley began bartending at Kettle of Fish, in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan, in 1983 and has owned the bar since 1998. That's the year he turned it into a Packers bar after buying it from his former boss, a New York Giants fan.
"We're the only real Packer bar," Daley said. "We're dedicated to the Packers. We're not a bar that shows the Packers amongst other games. We're just Packers."
Daley said he gets both regular locals and New York visitors in his bar for games.
"Last year, we did so well we had to turn away people at the door," he said. "Even when we were 4-12 (in 2005), we were still having over 80 people at a game."
Daley said there are a lot of Packer fans in New York.
"I know more Wisconsinites now than I did when I lived there," he joked.
To keep the Wisconsin theme going in Kettle of Fish during games, Daley sells Sprecher Beer, made in Milwaukee, and serves aged cheddar cheese from Wausau, summer sausage from Oshkosh and Usinger's brats, which he has shipped in weekly.
Daley plans to keep rooting for the Packers and showing Packers games on Sundays, but he's unsure what to do with his Favre decorations.
"Most people are pretty sad that it's come down to this," Daley said. "It's weird seeing so many people split on whose side they were on. It was kind of a bad thing for Packers fans from both sides - management and Brett. I was sure hoping they could resolve it and Brett would be playing another year in Green Bay."
Some in the Racine area disagree with Daley, and will no longer be supporting the
Packers.
"I am now a Jets fan," said Joann Wahl, 45, of Racine. "I liked them before, but will like them a whole lot better than the Packers."
Wahl grew up a Packers fan, but also liked the Jets because of Joe Namath, the Jets' former quarterback and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who in January 1969 led the franchise to its only Super Bowl victory. She said she will not watch Packers games anymore because she is more of a Brett Favre fan.
"He made me more interested in football," she said. "He brought the emotions of the game and made it more fun and exciting."
Michael Gates also said he will no longer cheer for the Packers. Gates, 24, lives in Milwaukee but was born in Racine.
"I've cheered for them for 24 years and this is how they repay their fans?" he said. "My new favorite team is the New York Jets and that is only because they have Brett Favre."